The 26-year-old fly-half is set to make his first start for France in six matches since the first game of the summer tour to Argentina that saw the les Bleus fall to a 23-20 defeat in Cordoba.

Trinh-Duc has started from the bench in France’s first two RBS 6 Nations defeats to Italy and then Wales but replaces Frederic Michalak at fly-half for the clash with England at Twickenham.

He will link up with scrum-half Morgan Parra with the two to become the second most used French half-back pairing – this will be their 20th start – behind Jacques Fouroux and Jean-Pierre Romeu.

And, handed his first start in over eight months, Trinh-Duc is desperate to mark his return to the first XV with a victory that gets France’s RBS 6 Nations campaign back up and running.

“I really do want to play in this match after the November Tests and a tough start to the tournament with little play-time for myself,” said Trinh-Duc.

“A win over the English would rescue our tournament. We need to battle back from our bad start.”